Genre: Poetry

Deadline Approaches for the Essay Press Book Contest

G&A: The Contest Blog
12.10.21

Submissions are open for the 2021 Essay Press Book Contest, cosponsored by the University of Washington in Bothell MFA program. Given for manuscripts “that extend or challenge the formal possibilities of prose,” the award includes publication by Essay Press, a cash prize of $1,000, and an invitation to read on the Bothell campus near Seattle, travel expenses covered. Lyric essays, prose poems or poetics, experimental biography and autobiography, and hybridized text/art manuscripts, among other forms, are eligible. Ronaldo Wilson will judge.

Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 70 to 200 pages with a $20 entry fee ($25 to receive a copy of a previously published Essay Press book) by December 15. Some fee waivers are available. All entries will be considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Authors Eula Biss, Stephen Cope, and Catherine Taylor founded Essay Press in 2006. The independent, volunteer-run press publishes “artful, innovative writing that questions convention and explores issues of significant contemporary relevance.” Previous winners of the book contest include Valerie Hsiung, Silvina López Medin, and Yanara Friedland.

 

Greg Tate: What Is Hip Hop?

Caption: 

“Hip-hop is Ralph Ellison, who once said the blues is like running a razor blade along an open sore.” In this audio recording from the 1996 album Flippin’ the Script: Rap Meets Poetry released by Mouth Almighty Records, author and critic Greg Tate reads his poem “What Is Hip Hop?” The influential journalist and author of Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America (Simon & Schuster, 1992), died at the age of sixty-three on December 7, 2021.

Genre: 
Poetry
Creative Nonfiction
Spoken Word
Tags: 
Greg Tate
music
hip-hop
1996
in memoriam
Flyboy in the Buttermilk

Last Name

The Time Is Now
12.7.21

“The name means ‘odd.’ / The name means ‘queer.’ / It can denote an ‘odd fish,’” writes Mark Wunderlich in his poem “Wunderlich.” The poem serves as an exploration of the poet’s last name, interlacing a historical overview of his family’s ancestry with suggestive definitions that compound and contradict. “The name means ‘electric organ maestro.’ / The name means ‘famous botanical illustrator.’” This week write a poem inspired by your last name. Allow yourself to get carried away with fact and fable, letting your imagination spin a new history for your family name.

Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition Open for Submissions

G&A: The Contest Blog
12.3.21

Calling all poets with a chapbook manuscript! New York City’s Center for Book Arts (CBA) is accepting submissions for its annual Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition. The winning poet’s chapbook will be published by CBA in a limited edition designed by a book artist. The winner will also receive a cash prize of $500, an honorarium of $500 to participate in a reading with CBA, and a weeklong residency at Millay Arts in Austerlitz, New York. This year’s judge is Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge.

Using the online submission system, submit a poetry manuscript of up to 21 pages (or 450 lines) with a $30 entry fee by December 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

A tradition for over twenty-five years, the Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition has previously honored work by poets including Miriam Bird Greenberg, Luisa A. Igloria, and Katerina I. Ramos-Jordán. Bianca Rae Messinger won last year’s competition with Parallel Bars.

J. Jennifer Espinoza Reads “My Trans Body”

Caption: 

“I pick up the phone and send you some words / about my trans body,” reads J. Jennifer Espinoza from her poem “My Trans Body,” included in her collection Outside of the Body There Is Something Like Hope (Big Lucks, 2018), in this installment of Ours Poetica, a video series produced by the Poetry Foundation in collaboration with Complexly.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
J. Jennifer Espinoza
My Trans Body
Outside of the Body There Is Something Like Hope
Big Lucks
2018
Ours Poetica
Poetry Foundation
2021

Prizes for Poetry and Medicine

Hippocrates Prize
Entry Fee: 
$10
Deadline: 
February 14, 2022
A prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,379) and publication in the Hippocrates Prize anthology and as a video recording on the Hippocrates website is given annually for a single poem on a medical theme. A prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,379) and publication in the Hippocrates Prize anthology and on the website is also given for a single poem on a medical theme written by a health professional. Submit a poem of up to 50 lines with a $10 entry fee ($15 for postal submissions) by February 14. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poetry Prize

New American Press
Entry Fee: 
$20
Deadline: 
February 14, 2022
A prize of $1,500, publication by New American Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Eduardo C. Corral will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of at least 48 pages with a $20 entry fee by February 14. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

James Welch Prize

Poetry Northwest
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
January 31, 2022
Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Poetry Northwest will be given annually for a single poem by an Indigenous poet. The winners will also receive an all-expenses paid trip to read with the judge in the fall. Writers who have published no more than one full-length book and who are community-recognized members of tribal nations within the United States and its territories are eligible. Elise Paschen will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems of any length by January 31. All entries are considered for publication. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Furious Flower Poetry Center

Furious Flower Poetry Prize
Entry Fee: 
$15
Deadline: 
February 15, 2022
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Obsidian, the literary journal of Illinois State University, is given annually for a group of poems. The winner also receives a $500 honorarium to give a reading at James Madison University (either virtually or in-person, as public health allows). Poets who have published no more than one collection of poetry are eligible. Tim Siebles will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit three poems exploring Black themes and totaling no more than six pages with a $15 entry fee by February 15. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

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